Car set up order

Hi

I'm a fairly experienced racer to a decent standard but have to admit I'm quite lazy when it comes to car setups. In pc1 I would always change what I consider the basics in pretty much the following order and would get cars performing to my liking;

Like you I always work on my tire pressures first, from default I start by lowering the fronts by 5 bar and the rears by 10 bar, if the course has mostly right turns I lower the rights by another 5 bar and vice versa. Most of the default tire pressures I find are too high to start. I set brake pressure to 49. I leave brake duct at default to start. If available, I set aero to full rear and nothing on the front. I set weight balance a little to the rear if available. Springs are a personal choice but if it's a front engine car I set the front springs stiffer than the rears and vice versa if it's a rear engine car. I set front roll bar to soft and rear a little to the right of soft. I start with the bump stops at 10/11 on the front and 15/16 on the rear (I change the bumps if I see something on the HUD after I start driving). I set the dampers fairly stiff to start with the slow bumps and soft front rebound. I set accel lock to 26 and decel lock to 52 and diff to 40. I leave the ride heights at default to start mostly. I leave gear ratios at default until I take the car for a spin. I don't mess with fuel to start(mostly run TT), but mostly I use 21 liters because I can't do a lot of laps anyway and although it shouldn't make any difference in TT I just like things the same. I take the car out and watch tire temps as I drive, usually I can get through a lap and pit and make adjustments to pressure and brake bias/pressure. Run more laps an adjust tire pressure until I am happy with the temps after I do a 2 lap run then I will start adjusting everything else tweaking tire pressure as I go. I've had to set up all my cars again after a crash and this is the procedure I use to get back up and running.

You don't have to restrict yourself to this order. Tweak and loop back. Eg you add downforce, your ride height gets too low, so you increase springs, so your tyres start to heat too much so you loop back and increase your tyre pressure.
Be dynamic, because the cars and conditions are.

Originally Posted by blinkngone

Most of the default tire pressures I find are too high to start.

+1

Originally Posted by blinkngone

I set brake pressure to 49.

If you mean pressure, that'll be too weak. Anywhere between 80-100% mostly. Depends on the car and how much you're locking the brakes.
If you mean bias that's really far back and will give you rear brake lockup on most cars.

Originally Posted by blinkngone

I leave brake duct at default to start.

They're usually very conservative. On steel brake cars it's not much an issue except the extra bit of drag. On carbon brakes FA/GT1/LMP cars you'll lose brake power. Most tracks you'd want ~35%. As low as 5% for le Mans/Spa/Silverstone, ~15% Monza, 50+ for Zhuhai. Depends on your brake temps.
Note the FR3.5 brakes get hot so you'd run >50% duct at most tracks.

Originally Posted by blinkngone

If available, I set aero to full rear and nothing on the front. I set weight balance a little to the rear if available. Springs are a personal choice but if it's a front engine car I set the front springs stiffer than the rears and vice versa if it's a rear engine car. I set front roll bar to soft and rear a little to the right of soft.

Most default setups are fairly understeer biased, and these changes set you up for more understeer. Check out Jussi's (former wmd, now SMS) suspension calculator on projectcarssetups.eu

Personally I'll start with balanced springs and dampers using the calculator. Except Indy and CLK-LM, which need massively stiff front end for the front Aero to work better.

G29 FFB RAW 95-35-5-5

What tire compound were you using?
What was your tire pressure?
What was the track and tire temperatures?

Sorry, I set bias to 49 to start. Pressure I'm mostly between 96 and 99%. On some older cars I have to reduce pressure. I start understeering so I don't s loose control as much until I can get my tire temps right then I can adjust. I'll try adjusting brake duct but it's more usual for the engineer to warn me I'm overheating the brakes at default.

Hi hkraft300. Attached is my CKLM set up for the Dubai tracks. I have all the WR's for this car at Dubai. These are mostly set on the out lap. The brake duct is 75% and the engineer is warning me about brake temps before 2 laps are complete. The person in #2 is usually really good so I don't know if these are good times or not. Maybe PC people hate this car. I like the real car, never forget weber's spectacular LeMans flip. There is no guide for what a good lap should be so I don't know how much I need to improve. Club is 0:55.762, GP is 1:49.064, International is 1:29.092 and National is 1:16.401.How do these times compare with the CKLM Dubai tracks on the PS4? I lost all my brake duct settings when I lost my set ups but I had adjusted them from your previous advice. Thanks for all your help in the past and in advance for future help.

Ok, thanks hkraft300 for looking it up for me. Maybe in PCars2 they will have a lap time guide for TT that would list a perfect time so there is something to shoot for rather than just the fastest driver's time who happens to show up. I know I could push that time but why bother with no one else running that track? That suspension has generated more than a few WR at other tracks for me do to lack of interest by others in that car.